Over the past several decades, highly sophisticated techniques have been developed for identifying and producing hydrocarbons, commonly referred to as oil and gas, from subsurface formations. These techniques facilitate the discovery, assessment, and production of hydrocarbons from subsurface formations.
When a subsurface formation containing an economically producible amount of hydrocarbons is believed to have been discovered, a borehole is typically drilled from the earth surface to the desired subsurface formation and tests are performed on the formation to determine whether the formation is likely to produce hydrocarbons of commercial value. Typically, tests performed on subsurface formations involve interrogating penetrated formations to determine whether hydrocarbons are actually present and to assess the amount of producible hydrocarbons therein. One approach to performing such tests is by means of formation testing tools, often referred to as formation testers.
Formation testing typically involves the use of certain preliminary tests, or pretests, that may be used to perform a relatively quick assessment of a formation at one or more depths. While such pretests are generally conducted relatively quickly, these tests can nevertheless introduce delays (e.g., drilling delays if the tests are performed by a tool located in a drilling assembly) that increase the non-productive time and the possibility of tools becoming stuck in the wellbore. To reduce such non-productive time and the possibility of sticking, drilling operation specifications based on prevailing formation and drilling conditions are often established to dictate how long a drill string may be immobilized in a given borehole. Under these specifications, the drill string may only be allowed to be immobile for a limited period of time to deploy a probe and perform a pressure measurement. Because formation testing operations are used throughout drilling operations, the duration of any testing (e.g., pretests) and the accuracy of the results of the testing achievable in the allotted time are major constraints that must be considered.